Unabated Fears
by Edoras
Summary: One shot with angst and fluff, What more could you ask for?


Disclaimer: I own a big fat black cat, a bed for it to sleep on, a computer for me to work on, some old clothes, and a bunch of textbooks. Nowhere in there is an anime show.  
  
Please Review. (Author makes big sad puppy eyes.)  
  
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The room was empty. Meryl ran to the drawers, the closet, the bathroom, all in a vain attempt to deny what her eyes and her heart told her was true. He was gone. No red coat on its hanger, no yellow glasses on the bedside table. No note. Nothing to tell her where he was, where he was going, or why he had left.  
  
She could feel her pulse quickening, the blood pounding in her ears. She sat down roughly on the bed, her nightgown riding up on her thighs, as she felt her legs beginning to give way. How could he do this to her again? She had thought after she told him her true feelings everything would be alright. And it had been. He had told her he felt the same way. And kissed her. And for a little while everything was perfect. But he left. Again.  
  
'Think Meryl.' She ordered herself. 'Pull yourself together and think. Where would he go?' Holding her head in trembling hands Meryl tried to get back to rational thought but the fears and doubts wouldn't leave her in peace. And suddenly the certain knowledge came to her: Vash was in trouble. Images of his bullet riddled corpse raced through her mind. She couldn't stand it, she had to get to him.  
  
She bolted out the door and down the steps, running as fast as her legs could take her into the desert. Her mind was so consumed with her desire to find him that all thought of direction escaped her till her foot caught on a rock and she went sprawling face down. The pain of her knees and hands where they hit the ground mingled with the pain in her heart leaving her sobbing on the ground.  
  
Slowly she got back to her feet. Having lost her initial momentum she stopped to look around but found nothing but desert. She was alone in the middle of nowhere. She squinted back in the direction she thought she had come from, searching for any sign of the house she had just run from, but only sand and rocks greeted her. "VASH!" She screamed into the desert; nothing but the whistling wind whipping though her coat answered her.  
  
Tears streamed down her face as she continued to turn around, unable to decide where to go or what to do next. "Vash." It came out more as a sob than a yell. Just as all hope seemed gone, she heard a faint voice return "meryl?" Whipping around she saw a tall figure in a trench coat silhouetted against the desert sky.  
  
She ran towards him, laughter bubbling up inside her. 'Boy am I going to give him a piece of my mind! Scaring me like this.' But as she drew closer her feet stumbled to a stop. It was Vash, yes, that was certain. But not the Vash she knew. The trench coat she had assumed to be red was black as midnight and torn in several places. There were cuts across his face dripping blood, and his hair was matted with blood and dirt. And his eyes. She shivered as she looked into them. They were the eyes of a dead man.  
  
She couldn't take the look of his eyes and dropped her own to see the twisted remnants of his mechanical hand as he raised his blood spattered real hand towards her. It was too much. She stumbled backward only to collide with someone behind her. "meryl." the the person behind her muttered as its hands came up to her arms. She whipped around to stare into Wolfwoods eyes, cold and dead as she remembered them in the church.  
  
She lurched to the side only to run into another walking cadaver. Milly, but pale and emotionless as she never was in life. Meryl tried to get away but they were all around her. The dead eyes of people she knew and people she only half recognized, all coming toward her, reaching out to her, calling her name. She couldn't get away. She felt their hands on her, pulling her, as she squeezed her eyes shut and curled up trying to get away.  
  
She felt the hands holding her shoulders, but one of them felt warm on her bare skin and the other cool and soft, neither cold and clammy as she had expected. "Meryl. Meryl, it's okay." A soft voice called out to her. She could feel the material beneath her and arms wrapping around her. 'Bed? A nightmare.' She told herself as she slowly relaxed and willed her eyes to open to find herself staring at a badly scarred chest. Looking up she stared into the eyes of Vash the Stampede, notorious outlaw and her only love. With a sob she wrapped her arms around him in the tightest hug she could manage, and allowed her tears to flow freely.  
  
"Shhh, shhh." Vash whispered softly, as he stroked her hair. Meryl was always the collected one; seeing her break down like this was unnerving him badly. "It was only a nightmare. Nothing to worry about. Don't tell me the big bad insurance girl is afraid of the dark." He teased gently, hoping to lighten the mood. Even get her to smack him if it helped.  
  
Meryl's sobbing slowed as she drew away from him, hiccupping softly. Leaning her hands against his chest she kept her eyes lowered so all he could see was her ruffled black hair in the moonlight. "I dreamt you had left again." He barely caught the words though he clearly felt the sob that shook her when she finished.  
  
The hand stroking her hair slowly came to a rest as he stared down at the short woman with eyes filled with a lifetime of sadness. Gently he lifted her head up till she had no choice but to stare back into his eyes. "I am never going to leave you again." He said firmly as she stared into his eyes. "I love you, Meryl Stryfe, and I am never leaving you." With that he bent down to kiss her gently on the forehead, then on the lips. Meryl wrapped her arms around him again, more gently this time, and felt his arms encircling her, his chin resting on the top of her head. Her breath quieted as her tears dryed.  
  
"I love you, Vash the Stampede." She whispered, as she fell back to sleep in his arms.  
  
--  
  
Ahhh, the joy of fluff! 


End file.
